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The intensive care outreach team

The London Clinic provides an outreach service that monitors all patients, and picks up very quickly if a patient is likely to need assessment for ICU admission.

The outreach team is looked after by Carmel Gordon, and is based on the 3rd floor at the main hospital site at 20 Devonshire Place.
The intensive care unit is able to accept admission of any patient within any of the wards of The London Clinic if their condition deteriorates and they need extra monitoring and care.

The outreach team acts as an early warning system of deteriorating health of ward patients through a system. Ward nurses record observations like blood pressure and heart rate, and combine these to give a score for each patient.

By monitoring how that score changes provides instant information that a patient’s vital measurements are starting to decline.

Ward staff then alert the outreach team in the intensive care unit and patients who are a cause for concern are seen, reviewed and treated quickly on the ward if the problem is urgent. The decision to move a patient to the ICU may then be taken, and this is then accomplished as quickly as possible, with full support from a ICU fellow during the transfer.

The transfer is done without the need for an ambulance, as the ICU is close to all of the major wards.